Hidden Fears
by Anora
Summary: [Put on Hold] When things go array at Hogwarts, someone always pays. Harry has been kidnapped, and the only ones that can find him are within the forbidden forest either lost, or captured themselves. There is only one hope left and that is for Harry to ge


Hidden Fears

By: Anora

Harry sighed as he walked down one of the many halls of Hogwarts. He and Ron had gotten into another fight, and like always, Hermione had tried to be the peacemaker, only making things worse to some extent. He had run out, furious at the two of them, and forgot to bring his invisibility cloak or even his wand.

As if to confirm his anxieties of being out past midnight, a sound echoed down to him from the narrow corridor. He froze in his tracks, straining his ears towards the noise. Gratefully, he realized that it was only a rodent or some other small animal. Just to be sure, though, he quickly slipped off his shoes and picked them up to continue down the hallway.

Ron was probably already steaming in bed, pretending to be asleep, while waiting for noises to tell him that Harry had made it back alright, while Hermione would have slowly drifted off to sleep in the common room, which would allow Harry to sneak by unnoticed. With these thoughts running through his mind, he did not register that the sound of scampering had changed into the heavy footsteps of a man.

Meanwhile, Hogwarts resident bookworm awoke to see the embers in the fire dying, and, with a yawn that spoke of both frustration and fatigue, she realized that Harry must have already snuck past her when she had been sleeping. Shutting the book she had been trying to read to keep awake, Hermione started up the steps towards her nice soft bed, never thinking twice - or even once - about the wand that laid on a table away in the

corner. The wand of her best friend - Harry.

Somewhere in the Forbidden Forest, Peter Pettigrew stumbled while carrying his cargo. He could barely believe his luck when he had found Harry Potter both unarmed and unguarded by fellow classmates. Before sunlight hit the North Tower of Hogwarts, he needed to have the boy as far from Hogwarts as they could get, though. Otherwise the old man Dumbledore would be able track them with the castle's wards.

He scrabbled nervously to put Harry down so that he could search a tree trunk nearby for a portkey that had been allotted to him for emergencies. Yet because of his hurry, he did not take time to look where he was stepping, and was shocked when he felt the bite of a snake right in his ankle. He did not have time to look to see what kind it was, before his consciousness failed him, and he collapsed where he was standing.

An hour later, blurry pictures were all that

met Harry's eyes as he awoke from his forced sleep; his glasses must have fallen off when Wormtail stupefied him. Trying to stand up against the weakened curse's will, he started when he heard a warning hiss from a voice nearby.

Hesitantly, he called out to what he hoped was a snake: "Greetings? Who is there?" Harry had meant to say different words, but that had been all he could manage.

The voice that answered him sounded guarded but surprised. "Speaker. Dangerous to be here - leave." Harry gulped at its answer.

"Where here, Snake?"

"The place of many trees, little one." The strange hissing had begun to come closer and Harry felt the snake slowly creep up his leg. "I bite your friend. Grievances to you."

Harry was confused. "Friend?" He realized that the snake must have bitten Wormtail. It caused him slight worry but little grief. More pressing was the question of where was place of many trees. For Pete's sake, that could be any forest in England, or even outside of it. Harry shivered slightly at the thought. He stumbled while walking and leaned against a near by tree, trying to be careful of the snake that had now fully wrapped itself around his waist.

"Human was not friend of mine. Will you guide me to safety? I have no sight."

"I will try, Speaker. If human is not friend then we must leave quickly. It will wake soon."

With that said the snake and Harry made there way towards unknown destination, with out realizing just what they were leaving behind to the rat animagus. A wand.

A cry rose out of Ron Weasley's mouth as he rose from his nightmare. What a horrible dream it had been! He struggled out of his tangled sheets and was greeted by sunlight when he opened his curtains. Breathing a sigh of relief, he glanced around the dorm room, until his eyes landed on Harry's bed. Ron swore; Harry never left his curtains open when he slept and the emptiness hit him hard. Where was he?

Ron continued to grumble as he realized that Harry must have woken up before him, with the thought of ignoring the taller boy for the day. Their fight last night had been admittedly bad, with Ron complaining that Harry was being too distant and not spending enough time on Quidditch. This was rather stupid, now that he thought about it. He just wanted Harry to relax, and that was the only way he knew how to help his friend.

The redhead continued with his daily routine of taking a shower and collecting his clothes, noting that most of the boys were still asleep, even though it was nearly seven-thirty. He wished that he could sleep longer, but that nightmare had been one of his worst yet about his former pet rat. Finally, he grabbed his books and went down to where Hermione was waiting impatiently, as always with a book about potions or some other such nonsense in her hands.

"Where's Harry?"

"What, no friendly greeting in the morning to greet one of your best mates Hermione? You should be ashamed."

Hermione just glared in answer, "Well, where is he?"

Ron shrugged, "How am I supposed to know? He must have gone to breakfast without us, if you haven't seen him, the prat."

"That's not like him, though..." She bit her lip and glanced around. "He didn't even take his books with him!" Ron looked over to the corner where Harry had left his things the previous night, and was surprised to see not only the books of Harry Potter, but his wand also. He froze in his tracks; his dream - Harry had... No, it wasn't possible. Shaking his head he went over and picked up the belongings.

"He must have just forgotten them, come on and let's get them to him before breakfast ends."

Hermione sounded exasperated at his words, "Oh all you ever think about is food, Ron Weasley!"

"Hey I do not either! I think of a lot of things..."

"Like what?" A trail of silence was all that followed as the two friends headed out of their Common Room towards that

Great Hall.

Albus Dumbledore smiled with satisfaction as he popped his

second lemon drop of the day into his mouth. The sour sweets had always put a little more steam into a day, and, of course, the taste was irresistible. He never could understand why no one would accept the candies! Glancing around his office, he settled into his nice comfy chair for a little paperwork before breakfast.

Yet, before the hundred plus year old man could wet his quill, his Phoenix flew into the room with great flourish. Raising his

eyebrows in surprise he tried to get the fire bird to calm down, but Fawkes seemed to be intent on him looking at one of the many now-restored trinkets scattered on bookshelves and tables. With a sigh, he rose to his friend's bidding. Walking over, he realized just what Fawkes had urged him to see- the glass globe that would tell him Harry Potter's position anywhere in Hogwarts. He was currently out of its realm, and was only showing 'Forbidden Forest' as an answer. The old man muttered an expletive; the boy knew better than to go wandering outside the castle grounds, or even that castle at that!

With a nod of thanks to Fawkes, he started down to the Great Hall where the teachers he needed would have already gathered.

Meanwhile, Hermione Granger was practically screaming in frustration at her redheaded friend. "Ron, why didn't you make sure he was here! Why did you two even have to get in that stupid fight anyway?"

He, in turn, answered sarcastically. "Well, I don't know Hermione! I thought it might be fun, to run him out of the Gryffindor tower," then changing quickly to attack mode. "Why are you yelling me anyway? As I recall, you were the one that made him finally run out! He gets sick of your endless logic, you know! Feels like he can't ever defend himself to you because you just make him feel stupid when he fights back!" Ron blanched after the said his due; Hermione looked so hurt by it. "Hey, Mione... I was just kidding..."

His friend had already started to break down though. Why had he forgotten how... utterly frustrating girls could be when hurt? Looking for some way out of the situation, he jumped at the sound of footsteps coming their way, and was even happier when he saw it was Headmaster Dumbledore.

"Professor!" Dumbledore paused when he heard Ron call out. "Oh, hello Mr. Weasley. I am afraid I have some business to attend to." With that, he cast a rather disapproving glance the

two students' way, and started to continue on.

"Wait, Professor. Do you know where Harry is?" This time Hermione had spoken up and their Headmaster noticed that the girl had been crying what must have been moments earlier.

"You mean you two do not know?" Dumbledore was starting to worry even more. He had thought it had been a simple escapade, but if the boy's two best friends didn't know where he was... "Where did you two see him last?"

They looked distinctly downcast at the question. "Harry ran out of the dormitory past midnight last night, we haven't seen him since." Hermione had again spoken up, and wasn't meeting his eyes.

Dumbledore frowned. "You two come with me, I am going to be calling a staff meeting with a few select Professors in a few moments. Young Harry seems to have found himself in the Forbidden Forest for one reason or another." Hermione nodded and started to follow her Headmaster,

but Ron had frozen.

"No... It couldn't be," the boy whispered. He suddenly jerked and looked into Dumbledore's eyes. "Pettigrew has him!" With that, he ran away from the two as fast as his legs could carry him towards the nearest exit to the castle grounds.

"Wait! Mr. Weasley!" Dumbledore frowned; nothing good could come of this. And the day had started so well...

Harry awoke to light flittering through several of the dirty windows in the cottage the snake had led him to a few hours ago. The boards on the floor were rotting, and he felt that if he could see then he would be thoroughly disgusted with the place. Nevertheless, it was a roof over his head, and more importantly the snake had assured him that there were charms over the hut that kept animals away. They had had some trouble with that, because Harry didn't want to go in without the snake. Yet after some trying, they realized that Harry just had to explicitly invite an animal or any other life form other than human into the

cottage.

He was still nervous about staying in one place for very long though, mostly because he knew that Wormtail was still out there somewhere and, until he could contact someone from Hogwarts, things weren't looking too good. Plus, Harry was beginning to become hungry, and he had no idea as to what food naturally grew in the forest.

"Snake?"

"Yes, Speaker?"

Harry hesitated for a moment before plunging on. "You know where food is?"

The snake hesitated for a moment before answering. "My food, yes... your food, I

am unsure. I can ask my friends, though."

Sighing Harry dismissed the idea. "I doubt friends would know my food, Snake."

Apparently the snake disagreed though. "My friends know, they're not snakes. They help. Wait here."

With that, Harry's only help left him in the rundown cottage, with nothing to do but anticipate the arrival of the snake's unknown friends, or, if even worse luck were to befall Harry, Peter Pettigrew would find the cottage and take him, once again, captive.

A/N: Hey, I hoped you liked the first chapter! The next one should be up in about a week or so. All of the chapters are going to be about this long, so I will be able to finish them and have them betaed in no time. Thanks! Anora.


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